81958 - Cross-Cultural Encounters in the Medieval World (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

After completing the course, students are familiar with the main theoretical, methodological tools of global and intercultural perspectives for the study of the medieval world including religious phenomena and dynamics. They can critically identify the socio-cultural matrix of religions, as well as connections, developments, persistence and transformations of religious phenomena with a critical approach to periodization and can address and solve issues related to the management of cultural and religious pluralism. With a focus on the medieval Mediterranean and the routes to Asia from 1000 to 1500, students will be aware of patterns of religious, commercial and intellectual communication between Latins, Eastern Christians, Arabs and Mongols, with attention to the sociopolitical implications of interaction between groups in complex societies. Through discussion of selected sources and secondary literature on phenomena such as crusades, missions, travel andtrade, they will have acquired knowledge of the actors and spaces involved and the significance of the crossing of cultural and geographical boundaries in the medieval world and developed skills in source criticism and ability to apply appropriate methods of investigation and terminology required by the discipline, giving form, to the results of their research, documenting accurately and completely the information on which they base their conclusions and accounting for the methodologies and tools used. They know how to apply the tools of communication and use of data, also digital, in the field of editing and publishing.

Course contents

The course provides an introduction to cross-cultural approaches to the study of medieval history. With a special focus on the medieval Mediterranean and on the routes to Asia from 1000 to 1500, it will explore patterns of religious, commercial, and intellectual communication among Latin, East Christian, Islamic, and Mongol groups. The discussion of phenomena, such as evangelisation, travel, commerce, and visual representations of space, will shed light on the actors and contexts involved and on the meaning of traversing cultural and geographical boundaries in the medieval world.

The first week of the course will be devoted to providing the main theoretical tools for a history of cross-cultural encounters in pre-modern times, looking at the Mongol Empire and the Mediterranean Sea as key connecting spaces. In the second week, we will concentrate on the formation and history of the Mongol Empire, the largest continuous land-mass Empire in world history, discussing its impact on the establishment of new Eurasian interactions. The third week will be devoted to circulating knowledge and visual representations of the East. Comparing textual and cartographic evidence, we will consider the plurality of representation of the “Orient” produced or circulated in medieval Europe (13^th-15^th centuries), regarding them as crucial objects of cultural and religious history. In the fourth and fifth weeks we will concentrate on first-hand testimonies and travel narratives about the East in order to observe patterns of interaction, representation of otherness, and circulation of goods, peoples, and ideas across linguistic, religious, and cultural boundaries. By examining specific cases, based on Eastern and Western sources, we will explore the different ways in which medieval travelers took otherness into account, whether internal or external to Christianity, and will examine how these accounts fit into specific cultural schemes and political and religious agenda.

Each week (from week 2 to week 5) a class will be devoted to a group discussion of one or more primary sources indicated by the teacher.

Readings/Bibliography

PROGRAMME FOR ATTENDING STUDENTS:

Attending students will take part in the classes regularly and participate to class discussions. Moreover, each week (from week 2 to week 5) a group of students will discuss together one or more primary sources indicated by the teacher, following the schedule which will be shared at the beginning of the course. Most teaching materials will be made available to students in the dedicated Virtuale platform.

The final oral exam will be based on:

• the materials discussed in class;
• the primary source discussed in class, indicated at the beginning of the course (each student will prepare one source);
• and the following reading list:

J. H. Bentley, Old World encounters. Cross-cultural contacts and exchanges in pre-modern times (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), ch. 1, 4.

M. Favereau, "The Mongol Peace and Global Medieval Eurasia", Comparativ 28/4 (2018), pp. 49-70.

D. Abulafia, The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean (London: Allen Lane, 2011), Part Three.

E. R. Dursteler, “On Bazaars and Battlefields: Recent Scholarship on Mediterranean Cultural Contacts”, Journal of Early Modern History, 15 (2011): 413-43.

The History of Cartography, ed. by J. Brian Harley and David Woodward (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), Volume 1, ch. 17, 18.

S. Phillips, “The Outer World of the European Middle Ages,” in Implicit Understandings. Observing, Reporting, and Reflecting on the Encounters between Europeans and Other Peoples in the Early Modern Era, ed. Stuart B. Schwartz (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 23-63.

A. Gow, “Gog and Magog on Mappaemundi and early printed maps: Orientalizing ethnography in the apocalyptic tradition”, Journal of Early Modern history, 2 (1998), 61-88.

J. Le Goff, “The Medieval West and the Indian Ocean: An Oneiric Horizon”, in Medieval Ethnographies: European Perceptions of the World Beyond, ed. J.P. Rubiés (Farnham: Asghate, 2009), 155-173.

K. Phillips, Before Orientalism: Asian Peoples and Cultures in European Travel Writing (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014), Introduction, ch. 2, ch. 3.

Medieval Ethnographies: European Perceptions of the World Beyond, ed. J.P. Rubiés (Farnham: Asghate, 2009), Introduction and ch. 2.

 

PROGRAMME FOR NON ATTENDING STUDENTS OF THE INTEGRATED COURSE SPAZI E INCONTRI TRA CULTURE NEL MEDIOEVO, 12 CFU

Students who cannot attend classwork must read FOUR chapters/articles and ONE book from this list (to be agreed with the teacher in advance):

CHAPTERS/ARTICLES:

J. H. Bentley, Old World encounters. Cross-cultural contacts and exchanges in pre-modern times (New York: Oxford Universiyt Press, 1993), ch. 1, 4.

M. Favereau, "The Mongol Peace and Global Medieval Eurasia", Comparativ 28/4 (2018), pp. 49-70.

E. R. Dursteler, “On Bazaars and Battlefields: Recent Scholarship on Mediterranean Cultural Contacts”, Journal of Early Modern History, 15 (2011): 413-43.

The History of Cartography, ed. by J. Brian Harley and David Woodward (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), Volume 1, ch. 17, 18.

S. Phillips, “The Outer World of the European Middle Ages,” in Implicit Understandings. Observing, Reporting, and Reflecting on the Encounters between Europeans and Other Peoples in the Early Modern Era, ed. Stuart B. Schwartz (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 23-46.

A. Gow, “Gog and Magog on Mappaemundi and early printed maps: Orientalizing ethnography in the apocalyptic tradition”, Journal of Early Modern history, 2 (1998), 1-28.

J. Le Goff, “The Medieval West and the Indian Ocean: An Oneiric Horizon”, in Medieval Ethnographies: European Perceptions of the World Beyond, ed. J.P. Rubiés (Farnham: Asghate, 2009), 155-173.

K. Phillips, Before Orientalism: Asian Peoples and Cultures in European Travel Writing (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014), Introduction, ch. 2, ch. 3.

BOOKS:

1. K. Phillips, Before Orientalism: Asian Peoples and Cultures in European Travel Writing (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014).
2. P. Jackson, The Mongols and the Islamic world: from conquest to conversion (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017)
3. P. Jackson, The Mongols and the West (Harlow: Penguin, 2005).
4. M. Favereau, The Horde. How the Mongols Changed the World (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2022).

 

PROGRAMME FOR NON ATTENDING STUDENTS OF THE SINGLE COURSE CROSSCULTURAL ENCOUNTERS IN THE MEDIEVAL WORLD, 6 CFU

Students who cannot attend classwork must read TWO books from this list (to be agreed with the teacher in advance:  

BOOKS:

1. K. Phillips, Before Orientalism: Asian Peoples and Cultures in European Travel Writing (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014).
2. P. Jackson, The Mongols and the Islamic world: from conquest to conversion (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017)
3. P. Jackson, The Mongols and the West (Harlow: Penguin, 2005).
4. M. Favereau, The Horde. How the Mongols Changed the World (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2022).

Teaching methods

Frontal lectures and class discussion.

Assessment methods

Students who attend at least 75% of the lessons are considered to be attending.

Please note that those who will miss more than 4 classes will have to take the exam as non-attending students.

The course will be taught in English. Only GLOC students are required to take the final exam in English. Students from different curricula can choose whether to take the exam in English or Italian.

It is required that students attend the course regularly and prepare the group discussion of one primary source, assigned by the professor. The preparation of the reading materials will be evaluated on the basis of an oral exam.

The grade of the oral exam will be based on:

- knowledge of the reading materials
- critical skills
- command of the specific language

Students non attending the course will be evaluated on the basis of an oral exam. They will be asked questions aimed to assess their knowledge of the reading materials. The questions will also aim to evaluate the students' command of the specific language, their critical skills, and capacity of re-organizing the acquired information.

EVALUATION CRITERIA:

In-depth knowledge of the reading materials, with good analytical and critical skills and command of the specific language will qualify for a good/excellent mark.

Acceptable and more mechanical knowledge of the reading materials, and/or not always appropriate use of the language will lead to a sufficient/fair mark.

Fragmentary knowledge of the reading materials, weak critical skills, and/or insufficient command of the specific language and will lead to a failure or to a pass mark.

NB: The course (6CFU) is part of the integrated course "SPAZI E INCONTRI TRA CULTURE NEL MEDIOEVO (C.I.) (LM)". If a student has the Integrated Course (12CFU) in his/her study plan, the final grade will be the arithmetic average of the marks obtained in the two components ("Spazio e cultura storica nel medioevo (1) (LM)" and "Cross-cultural encounters in the medieval world" (1) (LM)").

Teaching tools

Frontal lectures and class discussions will be supported by Power Point presentations aimed to show visual and textual materials. The power point presentations will be made available to attending students via the Virtuale platform.

Students who require specific services and adaptations to teaching activities due to a disability or specific learning disorders (SLD), must first contact the appropriate office: https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students

Office hours

See the website of Irene Bueno